Canada: Shooting near college wounds four
Thousands of students at two colleges in Montreal, Canada were forced to go into lockdown as a shooting incident sent four people to hospital. At 5:30 pm local time (2230 GMT), gunshots rang out at a park across the street from Montmorency College in the Montreal suburb of Laval, police spokeswoman Genevieve Major told AFP.
Four people who were shot sought to take refuge at the college. They were later taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The college is attended by nearly 10,000 students and faculty. It remained locked down into the evening. Police swarmed the area in search of the shooter.
Mayor Stephane Boyer tweeted that a police operation was “underway”, while television footage showed parents of students crowding the roads around the college after they rushed to the scene.
Earlier, a 19-year-old man wearing a bulletproof vest was arrested at a junior college 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Montreal and charged with allegedly uttering threats.
Students and staff at the Cegep Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu told local media they were ordered to barricade themselves in classrooms and turn off the lights for most of the day, while a police operation unfolded outside.
(With inputs from agencies)
